Oliebollen: The Dense Dutch Doughnut

Lumps of dough fried in oil might seem humble – but oliebollen have a long and storied past in Dutch culture. As we learn from Chef Eric Meursing at De Culinaire Werkplaats in Amsterdam, they have been depicted in fine art going back centuries – and it’s just not New Years Eve without an oil ball.

Rico Gagliano: How did oliebollen come to be in the Netherlands?

Eric Meursing: Well what I read is that there are three different stories. It’s also very German they believe, or Portuguese. People just brought it here and we changed it a little, and they were called oliekoek instead of oliebol.

Rico Gagliano: They’re like oil cookies.

Eric Meursing: Oil cookies. They had also shaped like a little ball, but I think we made a bigger ball out of them.

Rico Gagliano: That was the Dutch tweak on the German cookie, is just make it large?

Eric Meursing: Yeah, make it large, and put currants in it. Raisins and currants.

It looks airy, but it’s very heavy. I mean, you can never eat about five oliebollen. It’s not good for your stomach.

Rico Gagliano: They’re like the size of a baseball, kind of.

Eric Meursing: You have as big as a fist sometimes, and when they’re ready you sprinkle them with powdered sugar.

Rico Gagliano: I’d describe them as the Dutch take on a donut but without a hole.

Eric Meursing: Yeah it’s something like donuts, but I think it’s more heavy than a donut.

Rico Gagliano: If you can believe that.

Eric Meursing: Yeah, I think so.

Rico Gagliano: So when did they come to the Netherlands, the oliebollen?

Eric Meursing: Well the first oliebol appeared on a painting, it was in 1652. It was a painting by Aelbert Cuyp and he painted a woman with a basket full of oliebollen.

Rico Gagliano: A basked full of them, so she’s a very large woman.

Eric Meursing: I don’t know. If she ate them all she would be very much larger than on the painting.

Rico Gagliano: So we know from this painting that they existed in like 17th century.

Eric Meursing: Right, that’s what we conclude.

Rico Gagliano: The typical filling is the currants and raisins. I know you can get them with other things, but the standard is raisins. Why is that?

Eric Meursing: Because we think of it as celebration bread, and in all the Dutch celebration breads are raisins.

Rico Gagliano: I see, so because it’s kind of holiday time, that’s a time to celebrate?

Eric Meursing: It is holiday time and you eat oliebollen especially on New Year’s Eve. There’s no New Year’s Eve without oliebollen.

Rico Gagliano: But your take on an oliebol is different. Tell me how you prepare it.

Eric Meursing: We make them smaller, there are no currants in them, and they are savorish.

Rico Gagliano: Savory?

Eric Meursing: Yep, with all kinds of spices in them, and we eat it with a little bit of pesto, a walnut spinach pesto. It is of course a kind of bread, oliebol, and you can eat bread sweetish but also savorish. So let’s start making the oliebol for you.

Rico Gagliano: Okay. So there’s the dough going into the frying oi. It is very deep in a wok/saucepan.

Eric Meursing: You see it rising, eh? It gets bigger and bigger.

Rico Gagliano: That’s delicious looking. I could just eat that, pretty much. So, and in this batter what spices are you using?

Eric Meursing: Curry spices, so Indian spices.

Rico Gagliano: Oh, so it’s like an Indian naan bread, like naan oliebollen. It’s like a naan doughnut.

Eric Meursing: Yeah, you could say that. That’s an original way of looking at it, a naan doughnut.

Rico Gagliano: There you go; I’m doing all of your PR for you.

Eric Meursing: Thank you.

Rico Gagliano: You can market that and I’ll take 10%.

Eric Meursing: You see it’s going to look like a little animal because I didn’t make a ball. Maybe it’s about the taste.

Rico Gagliano: It didn’t quite come out ball-shaped, you’re right. It does look kind- I don’t know what that looks like. All right, so now the sadly misshapen oliebol has now come out of the oil.

Eric Meursing: It’s ready and this will be served tonight. It’s a cocktail glass, and we use a cocktail glass because it’s almost like New Year’s Eve, and underneath we have a little bit of apple foam.

Rico Gagliano: So that’s an apple foam at the bottom?

Eric Meursing: Yes it’s an apple foam.

Rico Gagliano: In a kind of martini glass looking thing. And now, so on top of the apple foam is a little-

Eric Meursing: A little bit of spinach.

Rico Gagliano: Baby spinach.

Eric Meursing: Baby spinach. And here is a little bit of the pesto.

Rico Gagliano: All right, and now the twisted kind of golf ball sized oliebollen goes on top. So it’s like a spinach pesto salad with an oliebol on top, in a martini glass.

Eric Meursing: This is why you should imagine three balls like this.

Rico Gagliano: Oh I see, so normally there would be three oliebollen on top of-

Eric Meursing: Three personal oliebol like this.

Rico Gagliano: About say an inch wide normally. Oh sorry, we’re in the Netherlands- about four or five centimeters.

Eric Meursing: Centimeters, right. Okay.

Rico Gagliano: All right, I’m gonna try this thing.

Eric Meursing: You have to dig deep and get all the different layers on your fork or spoon.

Rico Gagliano: That is delicious.

Eric Meursing: Yeah?

Rico Gagliano: Yeah, and by the way this is served- along with this there’s a kind of spritzer bottle, like a thin tube with a little aerosol sprayer on the top of it. What is this?

Eric Meursing: Champagne, which goes with New Year’s Eve of course, and the oliebollen. But it’s better to spray it on your tongue. I mean it’s a different sensation.

Rico Gagliano: So this is a spray bottle full of champagne?

Eric Meursing: It’s- yeah.

Rico Gagliano: I’m gonna spray a little bit of this on my tongue and see how it goes. I think I also got it all over my cheek, so now I’m going to wander home and smell like a drunk even though I had no alcohol at all.

Fruit Paper & Rhubarb Dresses

Intrigued by the strawberry paper flower in the photo above or the rhubarb paper dress you heard Rico mention on the show? Take a look at Chef Meursing’s stunning conceptual creations.

Comedian brothers Danny and Anthony Palumbo found themselves laughing at the over-earnestness of many in the dining world (along with the popularity of both small plates and cutesy abbreviated slang) and decided to parody all those trends at once with a meticulously-crafted website for a fictional restaurant, Abbrev's.